Don't Trust Your Property To Galloway Real Estate
I own a condo it the Society Hill at Galloway II development. I planned to travel for all of 2017 and early 2018, and made the mistake of trusting Galloway Real Estate to rent out my unit in my absence.
I had lived in the place for 24 years, and it needed some work (paint job, new carpet, etc.) before it could be rented out. Broker-of-record Jon Seddon assured me that everything would be taken care of and I could leave with a free mind.
A storage unit is attached to the condo. I told Jon Seddon that I would leave some of my own personal belongings in there, that it has a different lock than the condo, and it was not to be touched. He agreed, and it was written into the contract. I left my most precious possessions (40 years worth of photographs, artwork, books, etc.) in it and left on my trip.
When I got to my 2017 destination in British Columbia, I sent Jon Seddon two checks for $3,000 each to do the work on my unit. I e-mailed him at least twice asking for the invoices to show the expenditures. He promised them, but I never received them. I spent the winter of 2018 in Las Vegas.
I arrived back at my home in New Jersey on March 27, 2018. "You're gonna love it," Jon Seddon told me as he handed me back the keys. To put it mildly, the place was a complete train wreck. For starters, the lock on my storage unit had been picked and the contents totally cleaned out. I raced back to the Galloway Real Estate office. Jon Seddon nonchalantly told me to file a burglary report with Galloway police, which I did within the hour. In a couple of later conversations, he was quite casual about this and acted like he didn't know nothing about nothing. The police lieutenant later told me that this was probably not a run-of-the-mill burglary, as even items that obviously had no monetary value was taken. The police chief told me that burglaries of these storage units are rare.
Then there was the condo itself. Galloway Real Estate charged me $850 to replace the carpets in the two bedrooms. The rugs were obviously low-grade, a fugly dark beige, and covered with black stains. I took pictures of it before moving anything back in. I sent the pictures to Jon Seddon, and he had no comment. He charged me $240 for two blinds and a curtain rod. One of the blinds was seriously damaged.
On May 2, 2018, I met with Jon Seddon and again asked for the invoices for the $5,933.90 worth of work he did on my condo. (He had refunded $66.10 to my account.) Seddon told me that he doesn't have the records, and it was 18 months after the fact. I was incredulous that a business doesn't keep records of its transactions and told me so. When I reminded him that I had asked for the invoices in January 2017 as the work was being done, he had no answer. He did promise to replace the damaged blinds. "I believe in keeping my word," Seddon said smugly as the conversation ended. A year later, that promise has not been kept.
So now I am living in the home I've owned for 25 years and feeling very uncomfortable. The carpets are cheap, ugly, and stained. I don't have the artwork I collected over a lifetime, most of it irreplaceable, and had to go to thrift shops and yard sales for something to put on the walls. Gone are my pictures of my now-deceased parents, my siblings and myself as children, friends, and all the vacations I went on.
If you own a property in Galloway and need to rent it out, don't walk, RUN away from Galloway Real Estate.
I'd give this outfit minus-five stars if I could. read more
